Cuckoo Projects Redesigns Cuckoo Clock With 3D Printing

Over the course of five weeks, Germany’s Stilnest enlisted six artists from around the world to play a part in designing a 3D printed “conjoint remake of the traditional German cuckoo clock in synch with the Zeitgeist of the 21st century.” Without ever meeting each other, the artists from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, and Mexico took it upon themselves to design a specific piece of the clock.

“While the traditional cuckoo clock is wooden carved in the Black Forest in Germany, our modern remake is digital designed by various artists from around the world and could be 3D printed everywhere! The case of traditional clocks is decorated with leaves and animals. But we tried to create a symbol for the new era: So we asked a couple of designers to create a collective artwork with us. And as the whole process stays fully digital except for the final print, there were no frontiers for imagination or team-work at all,” Stilnest wrote on their website.

Each designer sent in their digital drawing of the section they were responsible for creating to Stilnest in Germany, and the pieces were printed using a 3D printer and fully assembled into a clock that resembles the traditional German cuckoo clocks.

The material used to create the clock isn’t the only key difference between this and the original Black Forest clocks. In fact, this clock doesn’t even tell you the time. “We recreated the most popular piece of german handmade for today’s Zeitgeist and the pulse of social media. It’s an automaton as its original example but doesn‘t strike every hour, it strikes every hashtag.” So when a Tweet contains #stilnest, the clock is set off.

This cuckoo clock may not be made out of wood or even tell the time, but it still contains a level of design that you could say is on par with the more traditional cuckoo clocks of Germany.

Stephen founded German Pulse and LGBT Germany out of a passion to introduce Americans to a Germany that goes beyond beer and polka (although with enough beer he has been known to polka it up a bit). He's a coffee addict, lover of wine and good times, a hit in the kitchen and editor of TV commercials. You can follow him on Twitter (@StephenWFuchs) to find out a lot more.